Can You Hear the Call of My Heart?
by Kishiro Kitsune
Summary: A series of fics for Kidgeweek 2018! Each chapter is an unrelated fic, unless stated otherwise. Day 1: Sword and Shield. Pidge finds herself backed into a corner. Luckily, help is on the way.
1. Paladin at Heart

Paladin at Heart

Day 1: Sword and Shield

Pidge was in trouble and she knew it. She'd let her guard down and had been backed into a corner, with no way out but to fight her way through the army of Galra sentries that blocked her path. The odds were very much against her.

Panic threatened to bubble over as she summoned her bayard to her hand, activating the small blade, but she wouldn't let it consume her. She couldn't. She was a Paladin of Voltron and she wouldn't let herself be cowed by her enemies, no matter how bad it seemed. Pidge had gone through too much, had overcome so much, that to give into her fear would be an insult to herself and the people she loved.

All she needed was an opening.

She tightened her grip as she slid into an appropriate stance, the hum of her bayard loud in her ears. One of the sentries moved towards her.

And then there was an explosion above her, collapsing a chunk of ceiling and taking out a good number of the Galra sentries. Through the smoke and debris, she could spot a lithe form in black dropping down, curved blade in one hand and a familiar shield in another, slicing through the robots without preamble.

It took Pidge a full five seconds before she shook off her surprise and threw herself into the fray. Her bayard left behind a glowing green blur as it whirled through the air, easily cutting through the metal of the sentries and wrecking the vulnerable insides. One leaped in the air toward her and she shot the blade of her weapon into its chest, using its momentum against it to redirect its path into a pair of sentries heading towards her masked friend.

The resounding crash had him glance away from his fight for a brief second, watching just long enough to see her make her way to him so they could fight back to back.

"So whose plan was explosives?" Pidge asked once she was close enough.

"My mom's, actually."

The casual admittance took Pidge by surprise and she fought the urge to turn around and stare at him. A thousand questions rolled through her mind, starting with: "You found your mom?!" but she held them at bay for a more appropriate time.

It distracted her just long enough for one of the sentries to knock her off her feet and send her flying several feet away. Her head slammed against something – _hard_ – and if it weren't for her helmet she knew she would have been knocked out cold. It was still bad enough to make her see stars.

"Pidge!"

He blocked a strike from the nearest sentry with his shield and then took it's head using his sword. With an angry snarl he made quick work of the final three as he rushed to her side. She felt gentle fingers tugging insistently at her helmet, lifting it away so he could check for injuries.

"I'm fine," she murmured as he ran his hands through her hair. "I'm fine. A little shaken, but okay. Glad to see you're putting your new shield to good use."

It was her new favorite accomplishment. She'd taken the schematics of the shields incorporated into their paladin armor and retrofitted it to the gauntlet of Keith's new Blade of Marmora uniform. She made her own improvements, of course, like changing the color from light blue to a less noticeable violet, but the important thing was that it still resembled its original self.

It was a reminder that he would always be a Paladin.

Keith softly exhaled, finding no worrying injuries. "I wish you'd use yours more often."

"Gets in my way too much," Pidge responded. She pushed herself forward, kissing him on the lips in hopes of distracting him from the topic. It was their longest running argument: her lack of desire to use her shield while in battle. It was just easier for her to dodge attacks than try and block them, especially when that usually resulted in her flying across the room.

Keith drew back slightly, searching her face for something. He then sighed and pressed his forehead to hers. "Thank you, Katie."


	2. Forest Nymph

**Forest Nymph**

Day 2: Fashion

Keith had no idea what he was doing there.

Initially, he'd gone along with Lance to serve as moral support. His friend had finally made up his mind about asking the girl of his dreams out for coffee, and after Hunk bowed out at the last minute, Keith was left with little choice. He had to admit, he was a little curious about what kind of girl had caught his interest so thoroughly. Lance had been a massive flirt for as long as he'd known him, but it was different that time.

Which was probably why he was suddenly so interested in the fashion show put on by the University every year, which showcased the biggest talents of that year.

Lance grasped his arm suddenly. "Allura's is next!" he whispered in excitement.

Keith looked up from his phone just as he sent a message updating Hunk on how things were going. His eyes landed on the figure walking out onto stage and it was like time slowed.

She fluttered across the stage, clad in layers of gauzy green fabric, some of which wrapped in thin strips along her arms and legs. Her short hair was adorned with tiny pink flowers, giving her the effect of looking like a wood nymph who'd stepped out of the pages of legend.

He watched her, transfixed by her grace and the way she commanded the stage with movement alone. And then time resumed its usual speed and she was gone just as quickly as she appeared.

Keith hardly payed attention to the rest of the show, his thoughts occupied by the mystery model. She looked familiar to him, though he couldn't recall where he'd seen her or it he was just imagining it.

Luckily, Lance was too busy fidgeting in worry about going to talk to Allura to pay any attention to Keith's dilemma, or else he'd also have to deal with knowing smirks and not-at-all subtle remarks for the next six months.

A loud round of applause signaled the end of the fashion show and Keith stood, ready to be done with the whole ordeal. It took him another few minutes to pry a frozen Lance from his seat and then he dragged his friend to the backstage area, flagging down the guard so they could get through.

"Rolo!" he shouted over the din.

The slouching guard waved them through without question. "You owe me, Hawkins," he reminded Keith as they passed.

"Yeah, I know," Keith grumbled, shoving Lance ahead of him. He knew he wouldn't particularly enjoy whatever favor Rolo asked of him, but he got them in like he asked, so Keith wouldn't complain.

At last Lance found his legs again, moving purposely through the chaos as if drawn by some unseen force. He didn't stop until he found his target: a beautiful woman whose silver hair was pinned up in an elaborate bun. She had her back turned and was talking to someone behind a heavy curtain as they approached.

"It wasn't _that_ bad, now was it?" Allura asked, a teasing lilt to her voice.

" _I feel like I'm wearing ten pounds of makeup,"_ responded whoever was behind curtain.

"You exaggerate!"

" _Tell that to my face!"_

Giggling, Allura turned around and she lit up the moment she laid eyes on Lance. "You made it! But how did you get back here?" She glanced curiously at Keith, who took it upon himself to answer.

"I bribed Rolo," he explained with a shrug.

Allura sighed, though her smile didn't fade. "I should have known," she murmured as she turned her attention back to Lance, who gazed at her like a lovesick puppy. "Did you enjoy the show?"

"Well, yeah. It was cool seeing all of the different ideas and styles everyone had. And yours was – _wow!_ It looked _incredible_ , Allura. All of the time and heart you put into it really shows," Lance gushed, finally starting to pull himself together. "It's too bad you weren't able to have two models this year. I would've loved to see more of your work up on stage."

Allura blushed prettily at the praise. "If it's well-received this year, I've been promised space for two models next year. Maybe... maybe you'd like to...?"

On any other day, Keith would have found Lance's mini breakdown entertaining. At the very least, he'd be on his phone texting Hunk a play-by-play. But at that moment, the curtain slid aside and Allura's tiny model stepped out, clad in skinny jeans and a green baseball tee. Up close, her whole face glittered from the amount of makeup that had been applied, but it only enhanced her big brown eyes and fair complexion.

She raised an eyebrow as Allura and Lance seemingly held a competition to see who could get who to turn the brightest shade of red.

Realization hit Keith like a thunderclap. He knew _exactly_ why she looked familiar.

"You're Pidge," he blurted out without thinking.

She blinked up at him owlishly. "Uh, yeah? Who are you?"

"Shit, sorry," he quickly apologized. "I'm Keith. Shiro's brother."

Pidge relaxed a little at his words. "Oh, well that makes sense. Let me guess, I look 'exactly like my brother', right?"

"Not really. There's some resemblance, but I wouldn't have known just from seeing you. I know because Matt has a picture of the two of you in their apartment. I see it every time I go visit Shiro," Keith told her.

Pidge looked surprised, but whatever response she had for him was cut off by a loud squeal of delight from Allura. The two looked over in time to see her launch herself into Lance's arms and wrap her own tightly around him, nearly knocking over the lanky boy.

"Is that a 'yes'?" Lance wheezed.

Allura nodded. "Yes! Absolutely!" She turned her head and caught sight of Keith and Pidge watching and beamed at them. "Come with us! We'll make it a double date!"

"No way!" Pidge protested.

At the same time, Keith shrugged and said: "Sure."

Pidge whipped around to stare at him incredulously. " _What_?"

"We don't have to think of it as a date. Just... think of how happy Shiro and Matt will be when they find out we're trying to get along?" Keith said, unsure. When Pidge continued to stare, one eyebrow raised, he switched tactics. "It'll be funny to watch them on their first date?"

"It _would_ make for good blackmail material..." Pidge considered. She thought about it for a few minutes and then nodded. "Fine. But it's not a date."

"Agreed."

(Two days later, as Keith held her hand and walked her back to her dorm, they both had to admit that it may have been a bit more like a date than they intended, but in no way was that a bad thing.)


	3. Sick Day

Sick Day

Day 3: Adore

Pidge felt miserable.

Everything ached. Her eyes. Her legs. Her back. She couldn't stand for longer than a minute without feeling as though she was about to pass out. She couldn't focus. Couldn't eat. And to top it all off, even buried under a mountain of blankets, she was _freezing_ cold.

Her friends had all but confined her to her room, taking away her laptop and checking in on her every few hours to make sure she was resting and not stressing her body out more. She knew they meant well and just wanted her to get better as fast as possible, but she needed something to do. There had to be something she could have to distract her from her misery.

The door slid open and she braced herself for another round of "Dr. Hunk" checking in on her, likely with a plate of easily digestible food and some more water.

Quiet footsteps padded across the room and she frowned and rolled over to face her visitor. She stilled when she saw who it was, her breath effortlessly knocked from her body.

"...Keith?" Pidge weakly questioned. "Why are you here?"

He stopped at the edge of her bed, brow knitted in concern as he stared at her. "Lance called. He said you're sick."

"Just a little. I'll be better soon," Pidge said. "You didn't have to come all the way over here. I know you have more important things to do."

"More important...? Pidge, _nothing_ could ever be more important than you," Keith said firmly. He looked at her for a moment longer and then began removing his armor, ignoring all of Pidge's protests until he'd stripped fully down to his boxers.

Before Pidge could even process what he was doing, Keith was lifting the blankets and sliding into bed next to her. She could feel the heat radiating from his body and blissfully curled against him with a happy sigh.

"Better?" Keith asked.

Pidge hummed in response, closing her eyes. "I adore you, do you know that?"

Keith bowed his head and kissed her on the forehead. "And I adore you. Always have."

For a moment, Pidge was content to stay wrapped up in his arms, letting his warmth chase away the chill that had settled into her bones, but then a thought struck her. "But what if you get sick?"

"It's unlikely. I asked mom about it once, when one of the other Blade's got sick and it got passed around to everyone except me. Turns out, humans are immune to most Galra illnesses, and Galra are immune to most human illnesses," Keith explained. "I guess I have that immunity to both sides, so I don't get sick that easily."

"Lucky," Pidge murmured, trying not to feel too bitter.

Keith nuzzled the top of her head. "If it means I get to take care of you until you're better, I'm glad. Anything you need, just let me know."

"Just stay here for a while?"

"Of course."

At last, Pidge found herself able to drift off to sleep with a smile on her face.


	4. Dancing on a Cloud

This one is related to a fic I wrote a while ago, but you can easily read this without knowing about that one. If you're interested in reading it, it's Chapter 13 of A Kidgemas Story.

 **Dancing on a Cloud**

Day 4: Music

"Oh look, Lance sent an audio clip," Pidge remarked. "Do you think it's another remix of 'So This is Love'?"

Keith chuckled, leaning forward to rest his head on her shoulder. He marked his place in his book by keeping his thumb firmly between the pages, giving Pidge his undivided attention. "He's never going to give that up, is he?"

"Never," Pidge confirmed as she clicked on the file. It was titled "Dancing on a Cloud", but that didn't tell her anything about what the audio file contained. The last five had been labeled a variety of things, from strings of random letters to "seriously Pidge this one's the best".

Ever since they announced their engagement at Allura's annual Holiday Party and Pidge accidentally let it slip to Lance that Keith proposed to her with the song 'So This is Love', her friend hadn't let a day go by without bringing it up in some form or another. She guessed she couldn't really blame him, after the way they'd professed their hatred of the song during the two weeks he'd forced them to listen to it while teaching them to waltz for Shiro and Allura's wedding.

At some point, he'd decided to "assist" them with the playlist for their wedding by sending them different versions of the song, claiming it would be perfect for their first dance as husband and wife.

A new melody began to play from the speakers of Pidge's laptop and they listened intently for a few minutes, both wondering why Lance was sending them a different song. When the singing began, Pidge understood.

"It's also from Cinderella. Or it sounds like it. I don't think I've ever heard this one though..." she said, rolling her eyes. "What is with Lance and his Cinderella obsession? Why is _that_ the Disney movie he assigned us?"

"I dunno. I think it works for us, but with swapped roles?" Keith said.

Pidge raised an eyebrow. "Swapped roles?"

"You're the charming princess and I'm the common-born one," Keith elaborated. "No, seriously, Katie. You grew up in a really nice house with both of your parents and your brother, able to do whatever you set your mind to. I grew up in a shack in the desert with my dad."

"I'm not sure what that has to do with Cinderella, but okay," Pidge agreed, turning her head to kiss him on the cheek. The song came to an end and she deleted the e-mail, not bothering to save the file. "For the record, I like our song better."

"Don't tell Lance, but so do I," Keith said. He dipped his head into the crook of her neck, kissing the exposed skin he found there. "So it's our song now, is it? Why do I get the feeling we'll be dancing to it after all?"

Pidge hummed, closing her laptop and carefully setting it on her bedside table. She twisted around to face him and pried his book from his grasp, treating it with as much care as she did her laptop as she stretched across him to put it safely aside.

Keith settled his hands on her waist as she straddled him, wondering what his fiancee was up to. It would go one of two ways – either they wouldn't be leaving the bed for some time or she was about to abandon him after a brief make-out session.

"I already added it to my list," she admitted.

"Okay," Keith said, lifting one hand to cup her face and guide her down for a sweet kiss.

They didn't leave their bed for some time after that.


	5. Little Kisses

**Little Kisses**

Day 5: Games

Video games were unfamiliar ground for Keith. It wasn't something he had while growing up and once he was taken in by the Garrison, his life became studying in preparation to be a pilot. So when his friends first started to spend their downtime sitting in front of a screen, passing a controller around and cheering each other along as they battled their way through a virtual dungeon, he didn't understand the appeal.

"Do you want to learn?" Pidge asked after pulling him aside.

Keith shrugged. "I don't really see the point."

Had he been talking to anyone else, he would have made up an excuse about being too busy, but it was _Pidge_ asking him and he'd never been able to lie to her. There was something about those big brown eyes...

"It's just to have fun. To take your mind off of serious matters for a while," Pidge told him.

There was no judgment in her voice. No incredulous declaration or remark about how obvious it was that he wasn't fully human. (Always meant as a joke, he knew, but that didn't make it hurt any less. That strong sense of not belonging to either side of his bloodlines.)

Keith's gaze flickered to the others, who were yelling with delight as Shiro gained the upper hand in the fight. He watched as his oldest friend delivered the final blow and Matt leaned forward and planted a big kiss on his cheek in celebration.

Pidge's hand, warm against his own, drew him back to their conversation. She smiled up at him and said: "You don't have to decide now. Anytime you want to learn, I'll be happy to show you. And who knows, you might even be as good at it as I am. _Maybe._ "

Keith found himself grinning back at her, put at ease by her easy confidence. "Maybe I'll be even better." His words drew a laugh from her and his heart soared even as she pulled away from him.

"In your dreams, Hawkins," she teased.

* * *

It was another month before Keith took her up on her offer, following a particularly rough assignment from Kolivan. He returned to the Castle for some well-earned rest, but found himself unable to do so. He tossed and turned in bed, unable to sleep for more than ten minutes at a time, and eventually gave up in favor of aimlessly wandering the halls.

That was when he found Pidge.

She was sitting by herself in the game room, curled up against one of the arms of the couch with a controller held loosely in her hands and a thin blanket draped over her shoulders. All he could hear was the sound of her fingers tapping the buttons and, of course, the sound effects of the game she was playing.

Keith quietly moved closer, giving the screen a cursory look-over. He could tell it was different than the one he'd seen everyone playing. It was more brightly colored than the last and the character was some sort of blue animal instead of human, but he didn't care enough to note more than that. His real focus was on Pidge herself and how she wasn't playing with her usual enthusiasm.

She looked... sad.

Keith was moving before he actually knew what he was going to do. There was something in his chest that twisted at the sight of her looking like that and he had to try and change that.

"Hey," he greeted as he came around the couch.

Pidge glanced up, her fingers pausing for a brief moment. "Can't sleep either?"

"Not really," Keith admitted as he sat down next to her. "It's... been a rough few days. I thought being here would help."

Pidge smiled sympathetically. "It's too peaceful, right? Everyone else is asleep, so there's no one around to talk to. No one's making noise. There's nothing to keep your mind off of things." She stared at her hands as she spoke, her fingers tracing the buttons on the controller. She pressed down on one of the middle ones, pausing the game, and then turned to Keith. "My offer still stands, you know. About teaching you to play. If you want to."

The thought _had_ crossed his mind once or twice. And it was even more tempting with it being just the two of them, with no one else around to make fun of him or trying to talk over Pidge's advice.

Keith fought back the sudden awareness that they were _completely_ alone for once, and in turning to face him, Pidge's knees were just barely brushing against his own. It was so different than when they were out in the field working together. At least out there he knew what was expected of him.

But what did he really have to lose? (Other than accidentally offending the one girl he'd ever liked and hadn't managed to offend in the two years they'd been working together defending the universe.)

"Nothing else has helped me relax so far. Maybe this is what I need," Keith said.

Pidge's eyes lit up at being given the chance to share something she enjoyed. "Okay, lets do this! It's perfect timing, actually. This game's easier to pick up and play than Killbot Phantasm."

Keith watched as she rapidly pushed a few buttons, switching out of the game itself and to what he assumed was the title screen. "I'll take your word for it..." he said, staring down at the controller as she pushed it into his hands. "Uhh?"

"The best way to learn is to jump right in. There are only a few buttons you need to know. Now..." She paused to help him adjust his hands properly. "Left hand controls direction. If you press up, your character will look up and the screen will adjust to give you a better view of what's above you. It's the same if you look down. If you press right or left and then look down, you'll go into a roll. Right hand controls jump and that's it. Now hit start. It's in the center."

Keith did so, watching the screen a the game started up the first level. "So now I just go forward?"

Pidge nodded. "Exactly! This is a side-scroller, so your objective is to get to the end. Along the way you want to beat the monsters by hitting them and collect golden rings."

Keith moved his character forward, cautiously at first, but soon he started to pick up speed with a little well-timed advice from Pidge, who knew the best way to take out the mechanical monsters and the best paths to take to get the good power-ups. He didn't dare imagine he was actually any good at it, considering the number of times he lost rings or ran too fast and fell into the void, but her encouraging smile was all it took for him to keep going.

He had to admit, it was kind of fun.

By the time both of them were having trouble keeping focus, somewhere in the early morning hours of the Castle's day-night cycle, Keith felt a little more confident in his ability to play.

"Want to play again later?" Pidge asked. "Hunk and Lance are going out to see how the Balmeran's are doing, so they'll be away for the day."

"You're not going with them?"

Pidge shook her head "As tempting as it is to go and watch Hunk transform into a giant mushy mess the moment he sees Shay, I'm going to pass this time." She paused to yawn, covering her mouth with her hand. "This was more fun than that."

Keith looked at her in surprise. "Really? It wasn't boring watching me try and play?"

Pidge leaned back into the couch, barely able to keep her eyes open. "Not really. Why? Do you get bored watching me try an learn a new move on the training deck?"

His face flushed hotly at her question. He hadn't known she'd been that aware of him watching her form during training. Part of it was because he could never seem to keep his eyes off of her and the other was from sheer awe at how quickly she picked up techniques. "Never."

"Thought so," Pidge murmured, her eyes fluttering shut. Her breathing soon evened out as she drifted off to sleep right there on the couch.

Keith didn't dare move, for fear of waking her, and soon fell asleep next to her.

* * *

Pidge awoke with an abnormal amount of heat radiating from the couch she was laying against. It was the fleeting taste of Altean wine still on her lips that reminded her of what she'd been doing when she fell asleep and how she hadn't been alone.

Sure enough, she opened her eyes to find she'd slid to the side and had spent the past few hours drooling onto Keith's shoulder. To add to the embarrassment, someone had found them because there was a large blanket spread out over them. (She really hoped it wasn't Lance or Hunk. Neither of them would ever stop talking about it.)

Pidge took the rare opportunity to watch Keith as he slept. He always looked so at peace when he fell asleep after their gaming sessions, as if it allowed all of his worries the chance to melt away.

It had been two months since they started their night-time "hangout" whenever Keith was back in the Castle, bringing them closer together than ever before.

Pidge found herself eagerly anticipating the times he was in the Castle and missed him so fiercely that it ached when he was away. Matt, always her go-to person in times of emotional crises, was being unusually unhelpful on the matter, saying that it was something she had to discover for herself. (Extremely useless. 0/10 would not recommend as advice.)

Which was how she found herself talking to Coran late one night.

"Sounds like heartache to me," he had told her sagely.

 _Heartache_ , she thought as she watched Keith breathe. It sounded crazy. Keith was her _friend_. They were partners (or had been, when he still piloted the Red Lion) and worked well together, and sure there had always been a level of mutual fondness between them, but that was all!

Wasn't it?

Pidge wasn't so sure anymore.

A friend probably wouldn't have such vivid dreams of kissing him. A friend probably wouldn't catch themselves daydreaming about what it'd be like to hold his hand or just be held.

She regretfully pulled away from him, moving slowly and carefully tucking the blanket around him so he wouldn't wake from the sudden chill. She settled back on her side of the couch and recollected the controller from where it had fallen. What she really needed was something to distract her from her thoughts.

"Getting an early start?" Keith's voice rumbled low with sleep and the sound sent tingles down Pidge's spine. "Pretty sure that's cheating."

"Cheating?" Pidge parroted in confusion.

"For our competition. The one you said you wanted to do before you fell asleep last night," Keith clarified. (And was it just her imagination, or was he blushing?) "Or, was that...? I mean, we don't have to. It sounded kind of fun."

Oh. Right. The competition. The one her half-asleep and mildly inebriated brain decided would be a good idea. The one where some part of her thought it would be a good idea to request a kiss if she won. Not that she'd actually said that out loud.

That one.

Fighting back the blush threatening to take over her whole face, Pidge restrained herself from hitting start. "I'm not backing down now. Lets do this!"

Keith was quiet for a moment, staring at her with an unreadable expression. Then, he slowly exhaled and looked away. "So, I've been thinking about what I want if I win. I'm not sure I can top the kiss you're requesting, but-"

The controller clattered to the floor.

Pidge rapidly paled, blood draining from her face. "What?"

Quiznak.

 _QUIZNAK._

Her thought process stuttered to a stop.

She didn't...?

She _had._

Pidge was never drinking Altean wine again.

"Perfectly safe" her ass. Coran was going to get an earful from Shiro once she let it slip that he let her have a bottle. A bottle which she was returning post-haste if one little glass was enough to make her lose all sense.

"Pidge, are you okay?"

She groaned and dropped her head in her hands. "I'm so sorry! I don't know what I was thinking last night."

"...so you don't want to kiss me?"

Was it just her imagination or did Keith sound disappointed?

Pidge peeked out through her fingers, unsure of what to make of the situation. She could deny it. Should deny it? No? Yes? What was the right answer? _Was_ there a right answer?

 _("Love isn't something that has a wrong or right answer, Pidge," Matt said, gazing at Shiro. "It just is. You can fight it or you can go along with it, it's your choice. But let me tell you, going with it, as terrifying as it is, is so much better.")_

"I want to kiss you," Pidge whispered, too quiet for anyone to hear. She swallowed around the lump in her throat and sat back to slump against the couch, dropping her hands to her lap. "I want to kiss you," she repeated, louder than before.

"Okay," Keith said as he bent down to pick up the fallen controller. "But first you'll have to beat me."

"And if you win?" Pidge asked, accepting it from him. She dared to meet his eyes and her heard did flip-flops at the heated way he looked at her. She could also make out the faintest hint of a blush, which set her a little more at ease.

He was just as nervous.

"If I win, I get to kiss you," Keith said.

Pidge's heart fluttered. Mustering her resolve, she managed a small, lopsided grin. "Hope you're up for the challenge. I never lose."

Keith answered her challenge with a smirk of his own. "We'll see. I'm not going down without a fight, _Katie._ "

She flushed at the use of her real name and turned her attention to the game, trying not to let him see just how flustered it made her. She hit start.

The competition was simple. They'd each play the first zone of the game, which had a total of three acts and the possibility for two special stages. In the end, the winner would be the person with the highest total score. It was a contest of knowing the right path to take and which risks would be worth the points.

Pidge concentrated solely on the game, ignoring whatever Keith was doing. He was bound to try and distract her and she refused to let him succeed. They had an unspoken rule about how much interference was permitted and so far, neither of them had crossed that line.

She grit her teeth as she passed the first act, moving the first special stage as a reward for collecting and keeping enough rings. She could feel his eyes on her.

 _Don't get distracted!_

She passed the special stage with ease after collecting the emerald as a prize and then moved onto the second act. She'd just started to relax when she felt him shift closer. A weight settled against her shoulder.

"Keith, what are you doing?" Pidge asked, refusing to take her eyes off the screen.

"Just watching," he replied.

She pressed on, trying not to let herself get sidetracked by the way his hair tickled her skin whenever he moved. She was in the middle of timing a jump when Keith shifted again, his breath fanning over bare skin, and gently pressed his lips against her shoulder.

Quiznaking _quiznak_.

Pidge wouldn't look. She refused to look.

She just knew if she did, she'd get distracted by those beautiful blue-violet eyes and –

Too late.

Pidge swore under her breath, angry with herself for being so weak. As Keith chuckled into her exposed skin, she swore revenge. (And, for good measure, she swore off ever drinking wine again, as it'd been the reason she stripped off her usual sweater for the tank top she wore underneath.)

"Having trouble, Katie?"

"You wish," she retorted, viciously bouncing off an enemy's head. "You'll have to try harder than that, Hawkins!"

"Oh?"

Another kiss, a little higher, and a shiver ran down her spine. When did Keith get so confident? Was she still dreaming? She absolutely blamed the Altean wine. Clearly, it had affected them both. Another reason to get rid of it.

Pidge fought to focus. A kiss on her neck had her missing an easy target and losing her invulnerability. Keith backed off for a few minutes, letting her finish the act in peace, but the moment the next special stage began, he returned, nipping gently.

"Quiznak!" Pidge swore, fighting her rising desire to give in. Did it really matter who won, when the outcome would be the same?

Her hesitation led to her failing to acquire the emerald and reinvigorated her want to win. She had a momentary lapse, but that was fine. She'd make up for it.

Keith didn't let up for the final act, peppering kisses wherever he could get away with it.

Pidge trembled under his ministrations, losing more rings and precious time than she would have liked, but easily finished off the zone boss. She let the total score tally up and then paused the game, breathlessly turning to look at Keith. "Your turn. Hope you're ready."

"Do your worst," Keith responded, unable to stop himself from placing one last kiss on her shoulder. He took the controller from her and restarted from the first act.

Pidge hummed as she settled against him, much like he'd done to her in the beginning. She was content to watch for the first level and into the special stage, but after that, she began slowly tracing swirls along his arm. She kept her touch light and gentle. Teasing.

Keith shifted beneath her uneasily when she didn't do more than that through all of the second act and was practically squirming when he got to the next special stage.

"Hey, Keith," she asked softly, tilting her head to look at him through her eyelashes. "Kiss me?"

She expected him to laugh it off, to retort with something witty or at least a distracted "you'll have to try harder than that." Instead, Keith paused the game with a low growl and tossed the controller aside so his hands were free to gently cup her face as he gladly melded their lips together.

Pidge nearly gasped at the heat radiating from him, utterly lost in the way his lips moved against her own, hesitant and unsure, but still nice. One hand slid down to her waist, holding her close. And then he pulled back, not far, just enough to give them a moment to breathe.

"I win," Pidge whispered, unable to help herself.

Keith chuckled. "Are you sure about that?"

* * *

Bonus

"Coran, are we missing a bottle of Juniberry wine?" Allura asked as she returned from taking inventory of the Castle's drink selection. She wanted to get a head start on preparations for the next diplomatic meeting and had noticed an empty space on one of the racks while checking the more appropriate drinks.

Coran jumped guiltily at the question. "Ah, why do you ask, princess?"

Allura leveled him with a no-nonsense look. "You and I both know the effect it tends to have on people. Imagine if one of the paladins drank some! Lance is... _affectionate_ enough without it. I don't want to imagine..." She trailed off, a blush overtaking her face. "That might not be so terrible, actually..."

Feeling as though he'd narrowly dodged a bullet, Coran stealthily made his way out of the room, leaving the princess alone with her thoughts.

She didn't really need to know that he'd deliberately given a bottle to Pidge in hopes she and Keith would resolve their feelings for each other. She _especially_ didn't need to know that he hadn't warned her of the potent effects of the wine and it's ability to draw feelings of love to the surface.

Coran hummed a lively tune as he set off to complete his usual morning routine.


	6. That Which Binds Us Together

**That Which Binds Us Together**

Day 6: Soulmate

He felt drawn to her from the very start, even with Shiro's unexpected return and bulk weighing him down. He couldn't keep his eyes off of her. Adored the way she would always choose to stand next to him. The way she was fearless, with a temper equal to his own. The left arm of Voltron, to match his right arm. The perfect pair.

At least, that was what he thought.

"The download from the Galra ship was enough to at least get me in the right direction to start my search. I have a pod all ready to go," Pidge told Shiro, not daring to look at anyone except their leader.

"You can't leave," he blurted out, his tone taking everyone off-guard, but especially himself as an almost terror-panic welled up within him. She _couldn't_ go. She couldn't. She _had_ to understand! Didn't she feel it?

"You can't tell me what to do!" Pidge snapped, bristling at the way he tried to order her around.

"If you leave, we can't form Voltron. And that means we can't defend the universe against Zarkon." He clenched his fists and took a step forward, unsure of what he was doing. All he knew was that something inside of him would break – was breaking – if she left. "You're putting the lives of two people over the lives of everyone else in the entire galaxy!"

"Keith!" Shiro's voice cracked through the air like a whip and Keith backed down at the unspoken command. He backed off, looking anywhere but at Pidge. He barely heard what Shiro had to say, so disgusted with himself for losing his temper in such a way.

He couldn't watch her leave.

Except she didn't leave. She had everything prepared, but then Sendak took over the Castle and she was left on her own to keep it on the ground until she could shut down the particle barrier and let him and Allura back inside.

Pidge stayed and the relief he felt when she told him left him breathless.

Time passed, and every fight, all of the training, all of the adventures, brought them closer together. Their teamwork was solid, both while piloting their Lions and when they were on the ground. They matched each other in speed and adaptability, the forms their bayards took giving them both an advantage at close range.

Things were perfect.

Until his mother's knife transformed in his hand and Kolivan spoke those fateful words that would forever condemn him in the eyes of the team.

"You've awoken the blade! The only way this is possible is if Galra blood runs through your veins."

Keith squeezed his eyes shut tightly. He wouldn't cry. He refused. He slowly turned to face Shiro, awaiting judgement from his oldest friend – the one person in the universe he still called family. "It belonged to my mother," he croaked, sounding broken.

"Keith..." Shiro stepped forward, wrapping his arms around the exhausted Red Paladin and holding him close. "It's okay, Keith. It'll be okay."

"How can I face everyone?" he mumbled into Shiro's chest.

How could he face Pidge? She'd think him a monster for sure. The Galra were the reason her father and brother were missing and he was one of them.

"With your head held high," Shiro said as he drew back. His words had the intended effect of getting Keith to look up and meet his eyes. "This doesn't change who you are, Keith. No one will think badly of you for this."

He was wrong.

So wrong.

Allura's heated glare when he broke the news had him wishing he'd given up the knife from the start and never went through the trial. He couldn't look at the others. Hunk's nervous chatter told him everything he needed to know about how they were taking it.

He fled the bridge at the first opportunity, unable to handle the tension he'd caused. He could hear Shiro try to convince Allura to allow Kolivan on board the ship and the heated argument that broke out just as the door slid shut behind him.

Keith made it halfway down the hall before the door opened and shut again and then there were footsteps hurrying his way. He stopped, bracing himself for the confrontation that was sure to follow.

"Man, what a mess," Lance remarked. He frowned and reached out to rest a hand on Keith's shoulder. "Hey, are you okay?"

"Would _you_ be?" Pidge asked.

"Well, no..."

Keith breathed out, trying to steady himself before he spoke. His voice cracked anyway. "You guys don't have to do this. Don't pretend like everything is okay. Just... if you're going to yell at me, do it now."

Pidge and Lance exchanged bewildered glances.

"What are you talking about? Why would we want to do something like that?" Lance asked, sounding hurt by the very suggestion.

Keith made a frustrated sound as he turned to face them. "Because I'm Galra! I'm... I'm one of them! They took your family, Pidge! They're the reason you can't go back to Earth yet!"

"That wasn't your fault," Pidge said calmly. "Keith, you had _nothing_ to do with that. And the existence of the Blade of Marmora proves that not all Galra want to enslave the universe. Not all Galra are the bad guys. And even if we didn't know that, I'm not going to hold you accountable for what they did. That isn't fair."

As if to prove her point, Pidge took his hand and laced their fingers together. Heat raced up his arm at her touch and he almost yanked it away, but a stronger part of him refused to let go.

It was the same part of him that desperately wanted to kiss her in that moment.

"I don't understand. How are you both so calm about this?" Keith asked, beating back that impulse.

Lance sheepishly rubbed the back of his neck. "I kind of had a suspicion that you might be...? And I _may_ have shared it with Pidge, because I needed to make sure I wasn't imagining things. It was ages ago. There was that control panel that wouldn't respond to me no matter how many buttons I pressed, but you did one thing and it suddenly worked? And then Pidge said the panels could only be operated by a Galra or their tech, so I kind of put two and two together."

"But that was _months_ ago," Keith said, flabbergasted. "You've known all this time? Why didn't you say anything?"

"It didn't seem important," Pidge said with a shrug.

"Either you already knew or you didn't. We decided not to make a mess of things by bringing it up," Lance explained.

Keith looked between them, hardly daring to believe they were really okay with him being part Galra. "You really don't care?"

Pidge squeezed his hand. "We wouldn't be here if we did."

"You're still you. Bad fashion sense and all," Lance said with a grin.

"Lance!" Pidge scolded, trying not to laugh.

Keith found himself able to smile as they bantered, taking his mind away from his new discovery, at least for a while.

Pidge didn't let go of his hand.

* * *

More time passed.

He lost Shiro again. Allura became a paladin when Keith was accepted by the Black Lion and Lance by Red. He found Shiro again. And then, bowing to the pressure of being the leader no one wanted, Keith left.

There were tears in Pidge's eyes as he said goodbye. Her voice cracked as she hugged him and said: "We're really going to miss you!"

It was enough to make Keith hesitate, lingering just a while longer in the group hug. But he'd made up his mind and there was no going back. He had to leave. And maybe the distance would help. Maybe one day his heart wouldn't ache at the thought of her not being near.

Keith threw himself into working missions with Kolivan and the rest of the Blade of Marmora. As long as he stayed busy, he wouldn't think of how the others were doing back at the Castle. He wouldn't think of her.

He limited his contact with them, knowing his resolve would crumble if he didn't. It worked until Naxzela.

For something that started out so well, it ended in near disaster with a planet-sized bomb and an impenetrable forcefield. Keith acted purely on gut instinct, directing his ship for a head-on collision. There was not time to consider the what-ifs. There was only time to act.

And then Voltron's communication system came back online and someone patched the Paladins through the Keith's ship. Two things happened in that moment: the sound of panic in Pidge's voice had him maneuvering away from the barrier at the exact moment that his screen lit up in flames as _Prince Lotor_ struck the Galra ship with a well-timed shot.

It was all a blur after that. Keith could remember fighting to get a glimpse of Pidge, just to make sure she was alright, and then it was back to Marmora headquarters for a debrief. There was no time to rest from their massive victory and soon he was back in the field, putting the intelligence provided by Lotor to good use.

(And Keith honestly didn't know how he felt about that, after everything Lotor put them through, but he was no longer a part of the team and had no say in the matter.)

They emerged victorious and unscathed from their assignments.

Things slowly got better. Easier.

It was months before he saw her again. Allura opened the Castle to celebrate freeing another quadrant of the galaxy, enticing the leaders of the planets to join with the coalition. Keith attended at Kolivan's insistence, bringing with him a handful of other half-Galra members of Marmora, as well as his mother, Krolia.

Pidge was seated between Hunk and Lance and he spent all of dinner unable to keep his eyes off of her, taking in the subtle changes that had occurred while they were apart.

He narrowed his eyes as a young prince drew her attention and the sound of her laughter reached him all the way down the table.

"Keith," Krolia murmured. "Calm down. You're growling."

Keith stopped, more out of surprise than anything. He hadn't even realized he was doing it. He slumped in his seat, ears burning from embarrassment. "Sorry."

Krolia's gaze flickered between him and the Green Paladin, unsure of what she was seeing at first. Then she laid a hand on his shoulder. "It's alright, Keith. It's only natural to be protective of your soulmate."

"Soul... what?" Keith repeated in confusion.

Soulmate? Why would she think – ? Soulmates weren't real. It was just a fairytale.

"No one has told you...?" As always, Krolia looked upset by the knowledge that no one had bothered to explain important details of his heritage to him. Her jaw set into a scowl as she stood. "Come. I will explain to both of you."

"Mom, wait!" Keith hissed, scrambling to his feet as she walked away without him. He hurried after her and tried to ignore the undisguised whispers directed their way.

"Green Paladin, I wish to speak with you for a moment," Krolia stated as she stopped just behind the prince Pidge had been speaking to.

(Keith almost felt bad for him, as he looked terrified to turn around and see Krolia towering over him.)

Pidge looked utterly bewildered by the situation, but stood up anyway. "Uh, sure," she agreed. Before she left to follow them, she quietly whispered something to Lance, who looked displeased but didn't argue.

Krolia took a moment to respectfully nod to Allura before sweeping out of the room with both of them trailing along.

"What's this about?" Pidge whispered to Keith.

He couldn't bring himself to say it. Pidge would laugh for sure. And he wasn't sure he believed it himself, even as seriously as his mom was treating the subject.

Krolia waited until they were a good distance away before she stopped them. "It has come to my attention that there are certain things Kolivan has neglected to explain to you. I've asked you to join us, Pidge, because I believe you are a part of this."

Pidge's brow furrowed. "A part of what? What's this about?"

"Galra have soulmates," Krolia explained. "Or rather, Galra have the ability to _know_ the moment they meet their soulmate. We are instinctively drawn to them. It's a desire to be close, to protect them if we need to. No distance can break a soul bond once it has formed, nor will it cause it to weaken."

Keith stopped listening for a moment.

He'd felt drawn to her from the moment he first saw her. He'd blamed it on their bond as the left and right arms of Voltron once everything settled and thought little more of it. (After all, Hunk and Lance had been very close as the left and right legs of Voltron. He'd taken that as all the proof he needed.) He'd blamed everything on their bond as Paladins. His awareness of how close she stood to him. His admiration of her brilliance. How he worried about how she would take the news of him being part-Galra, more than anyone else. How hard it was to leave her.

It all made sense.

Soulmate. Pidge was his _soulmate_.

"Are you saying that Keith and I are...?" Pidge whispered, unable to finish her sentence. Her eyes were wide with disbelief as she looked up at Krolia. When the Galra woman nodded, her serious expression unchanged, Pidge turned to Keith instead. "Is it true?"

"I..." Keith's words caught in his throat and he nodded instead. "Yeah. I think so."

"You think so, or you know so?"

Keith closed his eyes. "I can feel it, Pidge. I always have. From that first day, when you held onto Shiro to keep him from falling off the hoverbike, I knew there was something. I just... I didn't know what it was. I'm sorry."

Pidge tilted her head curiously. "So what does this mean for us? I mean, the term soulmate has heavy connotations of romance on Earth. Is it the same for Galra?" she asked, directing the question to Krolia.

"It depends on those involve, but in most cases love is involved," Krolia said. "It takes time and hard work, just like any other relationship."

Pidge hummed thoughtfully, her gaze sliding back to Keith. "Could we have a moment alone, please?"

Keith almost wanted to ask his mom to stay, but she was gone before he could make up his mind, leaving him alone with Pidge.

"So, we're soulmates. Okay, that's... unexpected. And complicated? I mean, it is right now, since you're always with the Blade of Marmora and I'm always at the Castle or doing Voltron stuff," she rambled, beginning to pace. "But it won't be that way forever. One day the war will end. And then... and then maybe we could see about spending time together."

"I'd like that," Keith agreed.

And knowing that she wasn't horrified by the thought of being soulmates was enough. In truth, neither of them were ready for anything more than friendship. There was still so much to do. So much that could happen.

When another year passed and peace was won with Voltron leading the way, Keith and Pidge found each other again and made good on their unspoken promise to see where their soul bond would take them.


	7. I'll Never Stop Looking (for the Truth)

**I'll Never Stop Looking (for the Truth)**

Day 7: Conspiracy Theories

For once in her life, Katie Holt had miscalculated.

Her plan had seemed so simple at first. She'd break into Iverson's office at the Galaxy Garrison, hack into his computer, and collect all of the data she needed in order to prove that the report of the Kerberos Mission ending with a fatal pilot error was a lie. After that, she'd hide out in the desert away from prying eyes. She knew from the previous times she'd accessed classified data that there was a shack somewhere between fifteen to twenty miles from the Garrison, once owned by a top commander of the Garrison, but abandoned since his death ten years prior. She figured it was the perfect place to lay low for a while.

Her miscalculation was more of a personal lack of awareness of _exactly_ how far fifteen to twenty miles was, even while traveling on hover-board.

"I hate the outdoors," Katie grumbled to herself as she took shelter in the shade of an overhanging cliff. She sipped a her warm water, trying to conserve it for as long as she could, but knowing better than to not drink at all.

She had a good view of the desert around her and the larger mesas in the distance, but no shack.

After a quick break, Katie shouldered her bag and hopped back on her hover-board, continuing o her way. With a top speed of fifteen miles-per-hour on flat land and even less on the shifting hot sands, she knew she still had at least another hour to go, as long as everything kept going well.

"Hold on, Matt. Dad," she murmured. "I'm going to figure this out."

* * *

Keith was not having the best day, to say the least. He'd lot his temper with his instructors, _again_. He'd yelled at Iverson. Threatened one of the guards who arrived to see what the yelling was about, which, needless to say, was not well received. And when threatened with a court martial, shouted that they didn't need to bother because he was leaving.

He stormed back to his room after that, scooped his meager belongings into a small travel bag, and hit the garage to get his hoverbike before anyone could think to stop him. He gunned it out of there, kicking up a trail of sand in his wake, and made sure to take the long way through town to get to his one remaining sanctuary.

To most it was a lonely, abandoned shack surrounded by desert and tumbleweeds for miles, but to him it was home. He'd grown up in that house, just him and his dad. All of his fondest memories were there.

Well, almost all.

Keith shook off those thoughts as he slid down from his bike and began unloading the supplies he picked up in town. They probably wouldn't last more than a few days and the house was likely in worse shape than when he last saw it, but it would do for the time being. He'd get settled in, make any repairs that were absolutely necessary, and then he could begin his search for the truth.

By the time the sun was dipping low in the sky, Keith had put a decent dent in his cleaning. His childhood home was in better condition than he thought, though there was one window pane that was broken and some of the floorboards creaked more than he remembered.

While he could still see his way around, he went outside to set up a rudimentary alarm system consisting of string and old pots and pans, which would clang together if anything disturbed them. He stepped back to look at his handiwork, which was when he spotted a small figure on the horizon, closing in quickly.

Keith hid behind his hoverbike, which had been covered by a tan tarp, and waited to see who it was. Who could _possibly_ know about his house? It had to be someone from the Garrison. No one else knew.

Unless it was a bandit, who'd been staying there with no one's knowledge.

Keith shook off the silly thought, but unsheathed his knife just to be safe. He watched the small figure arrive just as darkness fully descended around them.

"So this is it," they said as they hopped down from the hover-board they'd been riding on.

Keith crept forward, trying to get a better look at who he was dealing with. He could make out long hair and a pair of oversized glasses, but that was all.

 _'What's a girl doing out here?'_ he wondered.

There was only one way to find out. He stepped out of hiding, making no attempt to hide his presence.

The girl spun to face him with an audible gasp of surprise. "Who's there?"

"I should be asking _you_ that," Keith retorted. "Who are you? How do you know about this place?"

"It's on Garrison records," she responded, ignoring his first question. "But no one lives here anymore, so why are you here?"

Keith subtly slid his knife back in its sheath. "This is my home," he partially lied. A coyote yipped from somewhere far off and he cast an uneasy look around. "Come on, lets continue this inside," he told her, turning and starting back towards the house. He looked back when he didn't hear footsteps following him and saw that she was rooted firmly to the same spot. He bit back his automatic response to demand she follow him, trying to see things from her perspective.

A guy, in a supposedly abandoned house, invites a young woman inside without answering any of her questions or giving her reason to trust him? Yeah, that sounded pretty sketchy in hindsight.

 _'What would Shiro do?'_

Well for starters, he probably wouldn't run away from the Garrison like a child throwing a temper tantrum.

But seriously, he'd watched Shiro charm his way out of a number of situations. It couldn't be that hard.

"I, uh, I'm Keith, by the way."

Yeah. Nailed it.

The girl pulled something from her pocket and held it up to eye level. The dull orange glow clued him into the fact that it was a Garrison issued phone just before the camera flash assaulted his vision, blinding him for several long seconds.

"What was that for?!" Keith shouted.

"So if anything happens to me, mom has a photo and a name for the authorities," she said flippantly. She studied the picture for a moment, frowning in confusion. "Wait, are you...? You're Shiro's friend, aren't you?"

"You knew Shiro?" he blurted out. It wasn't _that_ much of a surprise. Everyone at least knew of Takashi Shirogane, pilot of the Kerberos Mission.

She hesitated. "Not exactly. I never had the chance to meet him before they left, but my dad and brother know him," she told him as she started walked towards him, all sense of fear gone.

Keith knew before she spoke again who she was. Even in darkness, there was no mistaking those honeyed locks and piercing brown eyes. She and her mother had been on the news almost as much as their deceased family.

"I'm Katie Holt."

* * *

They didn't talk much more as they went inside, each of them taking a moment to decompress in preparation for the long conversation ahead of them.

A thousand questioned raced through Keith's mind. What was she doing all the way out there? How did she really know about his house? Did she believe the Garrison's lies? Or was she sent by the Garrison to investigate how much he knew?

Katie settled in at the table and began unloading her bag, which seemed to be filled entirely with electronics and empty food wrappers. "I don't suppose this place has electricity?" she mused, casting her eyes to the battery operated lanterns providing them with light.

"There are solar panels, but I haven't had time to check them yet," Keith said, trying not to sound offended.

"I can help take a look in the morning, if you want," she volunteered. "I should be fine until then. I've managed to boost the battery life on this baby to fifteen hours." She affectionately patted her laptop and then glanced back at him. "Are you coming over here, or do you have super vision?"

Keith walked over to her. "What's all of this for?"

"Dad, Matt, and Shiro are alive," Katie said, turning her full attention back to her computer as it finished booting up. "There's no evidence of a crash anywhere near or on Kerberos. For some reason, the Garrison is covering it up. I'm going to find out why."

"I knew it. I knew Shiro couldn't... Shiro's alive," Keith breathed, his emotions running haywire.

There was someone who believed him. Someone who felt the same way. Someone running all of these risks to expose the truth. He never could have dreamed that he would have help, but there she was, just as determined and fired up as he was – if not more.

He dragged a second chair over so he could sit next to her. "What's first?"

There was a hint of a smirk on her face as she removed a small drive from her back pocket. "Want to help me look through the top secret info I stole from Iverson's computer?"

Keith couldn't help but stare at her in awe. "You are my hero."

"I know. I'm pretty great," Katie agreed. "I didn't get everything, but this will be a good start. Ready?"

Keith nodded and glued his eyes to the screen.

* * *

They worked until the early hours of morning before taking a break. Katie fell asleep curled up on the couch under a thin blanket, where she had planted herself despite Keith's insistence that she take the air mattress. He put it on his list of things to remedy later and begrudgingly slept on his temporary bed.

Keith was the first to wake a few hours later, unable to ignore the way the sun shone directly on his face. He prepared a small breakfast while Katie continued to snooze, making a note of how much food was left. He had picked up enough to last himself a day or two, but with Katie to consider he'd have to go back sooner than that. Possibly that afternoon, once he got the solar panels up and running again.

It wasn't long before Katie woke as well, and he shared his plans with her over a breakfast of dry cereal.

"Mind if I tag along?" she asked.

Keith shrugged. "If you want. I don't have a spare helmet for the hoverbike, just to warn you."

Katie's eyes widened and for a moment Keith worried he may have scared her off from going with him. It turned out he didn't have to worry after all, as she broke out into a grin and said: "Yeah, you seem like the type."

After that, they took some time to get the house's solar power generating. They high-fived once they got all of the pieces to connect properly. Then there was time for Katie to set up her radio scanner and start honing in on the exact point in space she was looking for. They left it running as they set off for their journey into town.

"Do you really think there's something out there?" Keith asked as they walked out to his bike.

Katie nodded. "There has to be! If there was no crash and nothing to suggest they strayed off course, then what else could it be? Dad always said we couldn't be the only intelligent life in the universe."

Keith didn't respond as he tugged the tarp off of his bike, revealing its cherry red paint job. He ignored Katie's muffled laughter as he climbed on and reached out a hand to help her up. He felt her settle behind her, her hands coming to rest on his waist as he twisted the key in the ignition and the engine rumbled to life.

"Hold on," he warned her.

And then they were off, flying across the sand.

* * *

The first thing Katie did once they made it into town, after walking and talking off the pure adrenaline rush to the amusement of Keith, was to call her mom and let her know she was safe.

" _I was starting to get worried, sweetheart. Where are you? When are you coming home?"_

"I, uh, don't know yet," Katie said, wincing. "This is the best chance we have at finding dad and Matt. I can't give up now."

" _I know and I'm not asking you to. I just... I don't like the thought of you being out there all by yourself. Anything could happen."_

Katie hesitated, wondering if she should tell her mom about Keith. It would hardly help her mom's worrying if she knew she was staying at an abandoned shack with a dropout from the Garrison who wore a red and white leather jacket and drove a hoverbike. (Not that her mom really needed to know all of those details from the start, but she had a way of getting that sort of information from Katie with ease.)

Keith took the decision out of her hands as he approached with two jars of peanut butter. "Crunchy or creamy?"

Katie held her cell phone away from her mouth as she replied "creamy", but her mom heard anyway.

" _Who are you talking to, Katie?"_

She sighed as she watched Keith walk away, adding her favorite peanut butter to his hand basket. "I kind of made a friend? He knows Shiro."

There was a lengthy pause. _"He?"_

"It's fine, mom. His name's Keith and – "

" _Keith what? Do I get a last name?"_

"It's, uh..." Katie trailed off as she realized she'd never gotten a last name from him. Though if she was remembering the name of the previous owner correctly and given that Keith had mentioned growing up in that house once or twice while they were making repairs, she thought she had a pretty good idea of what it was. "Hawkins, maybe? That's who used to own the house and Keith says he grew up there."

Colleen Holt went quiet for so long that Katie feared their call had been dropped.

"Mom?"

" _I'd like to speak with him."_

Katie's stomach swooped unpleasantly at her mom's serious tone. "Is something wrong?"

" _That's just a name I haven't heard in a long time and I'd like to be sure."_

Katie picked up a box of donuts from the shelf and moved on to find Keith. "Alright, just give me a second," she said, peering down each aisle as she passed. She found him just a few aisles down and held out her phone to him. "My mom wants to talk to you."

Keith hesitantly took the device and put it to his ear. "Hello?"

Figuring she might as well keep shopping, Katie set off towards the canned foods to pick out what she wanted. She tried not to think about what her mom was telling him. She knew she wanted nothing more than for her to come home, but would she try and talk Keith into bringing her back? Or was she just making sure Katie was with someone trustworthy?

Keith was strange for sure and Katie only pretended not to know about the knife he kept on him at all times, but he didn't strike her as someone who was dangerous. At least not to her.

The truth was, he was one of two people who believed her when she said the Kerberos crew was alive _and_ he was willing to help her find out what happened. She wasn't going to give that up for anything.

(And the fact that he was the first person outside of her family who took an interest in what she was doing and was mostly able to keep up with her explanations was kind of refreshing. It may have endeared him to her more than she knew.)

A variety of soups joined the box of donuts in her basket, meticulously picked based on what she thought she might like to eat for the next week. She'd never been much of a canned soup person, but it wasn't like they had a refrigerator for fresh food.

She looked up as Keith approached, her phone held out in front of him. She took it back and put it to her ear. "Everything okay now?"

Her mom sighed in defeat. _"Yes, but I want a weekly update, at the least. Stay safe out there, Katie. You two watch out for each other."_

Katie watched as Keith perused the soups for himself. "Yeah, mom. We will," she promised.

* * *

Weeks went by as they divided their time between house repairs and digging through the data from Iverson's computer, double checking in case there was something they missed the first time. Katie's scanner picked up on blips now and then as she steadily increased the range.

She nearly missed it the first time – a strange, garbled sound between the static that she almost dismissed. Until she heard it again. She froze, listening in excitement as she was unmistakably picking up on _alien radio chatter_.

"Keith!" She jumped up, nearly ripping her headphones from the jack in her haste to yell at him through the nearest open window. "Keith, come here, quick! You need to hear this!"

Keith dropped the board he was using to build a shelter for his hoverbike, running as fast as he could for the door, which he threw open and didn't bother to shut as Katie eagerly shoved the headphones over his ears.

"Holy shit," he breathed, blue-violet eyes going wide when he heard it. "That's incredible. I can't believe it... Do you think you can get it clearer?

"I can try," Katie said, her determination renewed. She couldn't stop grinning. "You know what this means?"

"Aliens are real."

"Aliens are real," Katie confirmed. "And more importantly, it means dad, Matt, and Shiro are alive! Probably kidnapped by aliens, but _alive_."

"Now we just need to figure out why," Keith said, passing the headphones back to her.

Katie nodded as she slid them back on. "I'm going to try and see if I can hear anything right now and then I'll work on strengthening the signal."

Keith shuffled a bit and then cautiously placed his hand on her shoulder. "Good work, Katie."

She fought away a blush at the compliment, but her smile didn't diminish in the slightest. And for once, she didn't respond with her usual overconfidence. She simply said: "Thanks."

* * *

Try as she might, Katie didn't hear much more than static from her radio after that. She left it running on the off-chance it picked up on something, but it seemed the aliens were done with talking.

Meanwhile, Keith finished the temporary shelter for his bike and then took to exploring the surrounding area, unable to shake the feeling that there was _something_ out there, calling to him. No matter how much he searched, he found nothing.

Nighttime always found the two relaxing at the house, trying to find something productive to do before going to sleep. They'd gotten everything they could out of Iverson's data and the radio proved more stressful than anything, leaving them with a long stretch of time to just sit and talk. As more weeks passed, Katie migrated to the air mattress during their late-night discussions and often found herself falling asleep next to Keith.

It wasn't something either of them talked about, both content with the way things were.

"So, if aliens are real, what else do you think is real that most people dismiss?" Katie asked, easing herself onto the air mattress. "Like... Bigfoot? The yeti? Maybe the chupacabra?"

Keith couldn't help but laugh as he joined her on the bed. "Seriously? This is what you want to talk about?"

Katie gave him an amused look. "Have you _seen_ us lately? Keith, we live in a shack in the middle of the desert, where we spend our days scanning space for alien radio chatter. You've got a board where you've tried to mark out where the strange energy you feel is coming from! We're basically your stereotypical conspiracy theorists at this point! So yes, this is what I want to talk about."

"Okay, okay," Keith said, trying to put on a straight face. "How do you feel about Area 51?"

"Completely bogus. It's just a military base where they text experimental tech and aircraft. They just want everyone to believe it's real to keep suspicion off the true Area 51, which is in Antarctica," Katie said, somehow sounding completely serious.

Keith snorted in amusement. "You've put too much thought into this."

"You're just not ready for the truth," she said, maintaining her poker face for a few seconds longer before breaking out into a grin and pushing at Keith's arm. "Okay, but seriously, are there any cryptids you think are real?"

"Mothman."

"Mothman?"

Keith nodded sagely. "Most people think he's a harbinger of destruction, but he was just trying to warn everyone that they bridge was dangerous. It's not his fault people think he's scary."

"Jackalope's –"

"Fake," Keith interrupted. "Super fake. C'mon, Katie, you can do better than that."

"You're right. I'm sorry. Jackalope's are completely fake and I'm ashamed I ever brought them up," Katie apologized wracking her brain for something else. "The Loveland frog, on the other hand..."

"The Loveland frog?"

Katie hummed as she laid back. "You don't know about that one? In Ohio, there are frogmen that like to hang out under bridges at night. They gather there to gossip and scare away traveling salesmen. Or at least they used to. Now they like to scare kids who are out playing games on their phones."

Keith looked at her for a moment before giving in and laying down as well, rolling on his side to face her. "Maybe once all of this is over and we get your family and Shiro back, we could go out and look."

"What, like, take off on a cross country trip and hunt cryptids?" Katie asked.

"It could be fun."

Katie smiled. "You know, it kind of does sound fun."


End file.
